Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

Tombrello–120
ASPATURIAN: You were a postdoc at this time?
TOMBRELLO: I was a postdoc. I was sitting next to Carl Anderson in the back row, who was
trying to figure out if he could learn something from sitting in on Murray’s class. [Laughter] I
think we were both baffled most of the time. But then most of the students were, too. Murray is
a showman. Dick was a showman.
ASPATURIAN: Very different.
TOMBRELLO: With Dick, there was the Feynman effect. It’s like the Chinese restaurant effect—
ten minutes after dinner you’re hungry again. With Dick, the lecture was so clear that you quit
taking notes. And then five minutes after the lecture, you couldn’t reproduce the lecture! I
remember when Matt Sands and Leighton, people like that, were taking notes for the Feynman
lectures in freshman physics. They often realized at the end of a talk that they couldn’t
reproduce it. They had photographs of the board. They had recorded what Feynman said. Still,
there was something elusive about it. I’m not saying it was wrong or incomplete. It was subtle.
And you didn’t realize the subtlety, because it was so smooth, it was so beautifully done. It was
a piece of artwork. But you had to constantly be aware of the fact that because Dick made it
seem so simple, you were missing key things. The Feynman effect. It was very interesting.
ASPATURIAN: Well, let’s see. We’ve covered three of the four Nobel laureates in the division
during your time here: Fowler, Gell-Mann, Feynman. While we’re talking about it, let’s go to
the fourth—Politzer. He won in 2004 for asymptotic freedom.
TOMBRELLO: Well, David. I love David. David’s quite an extraordinary person.
ASPATURIAN: You’ve known him since he came.
TOMBRELLO: I’ve known him since he came. He was part of that 1974-75 triumvirate we hired.
[See also Sessions 2 and 4.] Three of the brightest human beings in the known world that year—
certainly in science. David is interesting. There are people who say he’s only done one thing,
but they are all desperately envious and they wish they had done that one thing. He’s a
http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T